‘The Transformation of Silence Into Language and Action’ – Understanding the Impact of Structural Violence and Activism (In Asylum Seeking Contexts) on Black and Racialised Women Activists and Their Bodies

Background: Structural violence perpetuates widespread social inequity and marginalisation; with the oppression it creates existing on the continuum of trauma. However, current conceptualisations of trauma struggle to capture diverse physical, embodied, and psychological manifestations of trauma and their impact on marginalised groups and those involved in activism.

Aims: This study sought to explore and deepen understanding of embodied experiences relating to structural violence in Black and racialised women activists, through a Black feminist intersectional lens.

Methods: A transformative, participatory approach was adopted which involved a co-researcher with lived experience of the phenomena supporting the research. Body mapping, an arts-based methodology was used with 12 Black and racialised women activists who have lived experience as refugees and asylum seekers. They produced life size maps of their bodies and shared a testimonia detailing the story of their map and their lived experiences of structural violence and activism.

Analysis: Data was analysed using a combination of reflexive thematic analysis (for testimonia) and axial embodiment (for visual body maps). Four themes were identified: Theme 1 – Caught in the asylum web: structural enactments of harm; Theme 2 – Feeling and Felt Realities of Violence; Theme 3 – Uncertain Spaces: Home(less)ness, Displacement, and Movement; and Theme 4 – NOT everybody’s free… so, Unite, Act and Empower… feel good.

Conclusions: Exposure to structural violence was found to have impacted Black and racialised women in emotional, physical, psychological, and embodied ways, particularly in the contexts of structural racism and anti-immigration rhetoric. Activism was found to have an empowering influence, enabling connection with community, one’s self and one’s body. Implications and recommendations for clinical and research practice are discussed.